Many newborns die or are seriously debilitated each year from diseases and disorders that can be easily detected and treated before any severe, long-term damage occurs. Early detection and communication of critical results indicating the presence of such a disorder are vital to ensure timely treatment is provided to prevent any detrimental effects. Accordingly, each state attempts to test every newborn for a panel of disorders determined by the state. In addition, a number of private laboratories provide expanded screening for a variety of additional disorders. Generally, newborn screening currently entails collecting a blood sample from a newborn shortly after birth. The blood sample is then sent to a state laboratory and/or an independent laboratory for testing. The laboratory performs the testing and sends the results to any indicated recipient, such as a pediatrician for the newborn or the hospital that served as the place of birth. Currently, reporting entails manually mailing, faxing, or phoning the newborn screening results to the recipients.
Although current newborn screening programs provide substantial benefit in detecting disorders and saving newborn lives, there remains a deficit. Nationally, 4,000 newborns are diagnosed with conditions screened for in newborn screening programs. However, it is estimated that 4.5% of screen-positive results are not successfully communicated to the proper recipient, resulting in a lack of confirmatory testing and appropriate medical follow-up for these at-risk infants. As mentioned above, current reporting entails manually mailing, faxing, or phoning of results to recipients. Recipients who do not receive results in a timely manner often assume that the results for the given newborn are normal. In addition, some recipients in highly populated areas have difficulty obtaining results for their patients if they do not have privileges at the hospital of birth. Simply, there is currently no automated approach to ensuring that recipients receive newborn screening results.